The United States Declares War

The US against German strategy

In his 1916 campaign for re-election Wilson
complained to advisors about his campaign slogan "he
kept us out of war." Mindful of
the emotionalism in 1915 with the sinking of the Lusitania,
he spoke of his being powerless before any tide of opinion
that might sweep the nation as the result of
some "damned" German submarine captain's "calculated
outrage." But, during
the remainder of his 1916 electioneering, Wilson went along
with the campaign slogan, while his campaign continued with other slogans such as peace with honor,
prosperity, preparedness, and the eight-hour day. Wilson's
Republican opponent, Charles Evan Hughes, attacked Wilson
for not being tough enough on the Entente powers, meaning
the British – a position that appealed to the Irish. Theodore
Roosevelt sided with the Republicans and attacked Wilson
for using "high
sounding words" and, referring to Wilson's failures
in Mexico, giving the nation "shabby
deeds."

President Woodrow Wilson, 1917

In November, Wilson won 49 percent of the vote to 46 percent for Hughes. Wilson
then turned his attention to urging Europe's warring nations to negotiate a
compromise settlement – a peace without victory for either side. He was opposed to the
kind of alliances that had accompanied Europe's going to war, and he proposed
a peace in which all the warring parties and neutrals would join a League of
Nations, a league that would guarantee to all nations "fundamental rights, equal
sovereignty, freedom from aggression, freedom of the seas, and eventual disarmament."
The League of Nations, he announced, would "ensure peace and justice throughout
the world."

Wilson's call for a negotiated end to the war created a stir in Europe. Britain's
response was that Germany should withdraw from the territories it occupied and
pay the Entente powers for damages it had caused, and the French continued to
insist that Germany withdraw from their territory. In Germany, the Social Democratic
Party announced that it favored a compromise peace, a peace without annexations
of territory – a reestablishment of the borders of 1914. In the United States,
hostility toward Britain was at a high point because of Britain's handling of
the Irish rebellion, and Wilson was fed up with Britain for its indifference
to his peace proposals, its continuing violation of the rights of US and other
neutral shipping on the high seas, its censoring American mail, and its blacklisting
US companies that traded with Germany and Austria-Hungary.

Germany's hawkish newspapers and others continued to oppose any compromise.
For them there was no substitute for military victory. Some Germans believed that the United States was already
in effect in the war on the side of Britain. Germany's Supreme Command assured
King William that if submarine warfare brought the United States into the war,
Britain would be forced to sue for peace before US troops could arrive in
significant numbers. Many were inclined to accept the judgment of their nation's
leading military men on military matters. And so too was Kaiser Wilhelm, who
accepted their analysis.

Kaiser Wilhelm. After 1916 Germany
was largely in the hands of his military.

Eugene Debs (1912). In 1917 he had simplified the war to a squabble over profits.

Wilhelm was nervous and wanted peace. He was alarmed about the suffering of his subjects and disgusted by Britain's naval blockade. And he also wished for a military victory. He was determined to carry out his role as Germany's God-appointed ruler.
His government notified Washington of its intentions to resume unrestricted
submarine warfare. It offered American ships passage to one British port
a week, at Falmouth – a ship that, to avoid being torpedoed, had to be marked
by flags, painted with certain signs, and had to follow a described sea lane
across the Atlantic. The Wilson administration rejected all this, and on January
31, 1917, the Germans began their new program of submarine warfare.

Wilson, under attack in the United States for being too soft, responded
with a call for "armed neutrality," which meant the arming of US merchant
ships to defend themselves against submarines. The British moved to influence
opinion in the United States, and on February 28 it made public a telegram that
Germany's new Secretary of State, Arthur Zimmermann, had sent in mid-January
to the German minister in Mexico. The telegram advised the minister in Mexico
that war between the United States and Germany might come with Germany's new
submarine offensive. He said that Germany would offer Mexico an alliance with
Germany and promised Mexico the return of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Britain's release of the telegram had an impact. A wave of indignation swept across the US, the indignation
that Wilson had feared.

During the month of March, Americans debated whether to go to war. Pacifists
in the United States had some stature, with roots going back to the 19th century
in the abolitionist, woman's suffrage and labor movements. The socialist leader,
Eugene Debs, came out of retirement and described the war as a squabble over
profits for businessmen and munitions makers. Socialists accused big business
of fomenting war in order to profit from arms sales, and they complained that
the United States was going to war for the capitalist class at the expense of
the working class. Anarchists, leftist labor leaders, pacifist Christian ministers,
various editors and a few politicians held firm against the war. But millions favored war, believing
that the US should stand up and fight for its rights. Theodore Roosevelt
was with those favoring war. He still believed that fighting wars was
spiritually uplifting. Russia had overthrown Tsar Nicholas in February, and it was argued that the US would be fighting
a war against autocracy.

A majority in Congress favored war, and Wilson found his advisors unanimously
in favor of war. Wilson feared that war might bring a spirit of brutality to
the US and jeopardize reforms. He agonized. No evidence exists that he was
influenced by a desire to serve armament manufacturers or to save the investments
of those who had been lending money to the Entente powers – largely men who
had opposed him in his run for office in 1916 and to whom Wilson owed nothing.

Wilson came down on the side of his advisors, and he created a rationale
for his decision. He went before a joint session of Congress and announced that
the United States would not choose "the path of submission." The world, he told
Congress and the nation, must be "made safe for democracy." He called for a
new balance of power. At the end of his speech, when he asked for a declaration
of war, Congress exploded in applause.

On April 6 the House of Representatives voted 373 to 50 in favor of declaring
war, and the Senate voted in favor 82 to 6. Rather than having been made
somber by the weight of their decision, congressmen greeted the results of their
votes by standing on their chairs, waving their American flag lapel pins and cheering.

The evangelist Billy Sunday was cheered by the decision, and his view was echoed by the
Los Angeles Times, which joined Billy Sunday in claiming that the United States
was on its way to fighting "Christ's war." There were religious leaders who protested
that the war was a violation of Christianity. A few Americans were embittered,
and some joined those who Wilson as acting on behalf of big business. But many who had opposed
going to war or had harbored doubts about it now believed that it was their duty
to support the war effort. War meant that young American men would die, and
the patriotic thing to do was to lend a hand in the coming struggle.